The Hand but Not the Heart eBook

He was leaning towards her, and listening with rapt
interest, his countenance and eyes full of admiration,
when a quick, impatient ahem caused him to
look up. As he did so, he encountered the severe
face and piercing eyes of Mr. Dexter. The sudden
change in the expression of his countenance warned
Mrs. Dexter of the presence of her husband, who had
approached quietly, and was standing a pace or two
behind his wife. But not the slightest consciousness
of this presence did her manner exhibit. She
kept on talking as before, and talking to Mr. Hendrickson.

“Will you go with me now, Mrs. Dexter?”
said her husband, coming forward, and making a motion
as if about to offer his arm.

“Not yet if you please, Mr. Dexter,” was
smilingly answered. “I am too much interested
in this good company. Come, sit down here,”
and she made room for him on the sofa.

But he stood still.

“Then amuse yourself a little longer,”
said his wife, in a gay voice. “I will
be ready to go with you after a while.”

Mr. Dexter moved away, disappointed, and commenced
pacing the floor of the long parlor. At every
turn his keen eyes took in the aspect of the little
group, and particularly the meaning of his wife’s
face, as it turned to Mr. Hendrickson, either in the
play of expression or warm with the listener’s
interest. The sight half maddened him. Three
times, in the next half hour, he said to his wife,
as he paused in his restless promenade before her—­

“Come, Jessie.”

But she only threw him a smiling negative, and became
still more interesting to her friends. At last,
and of her own will, she arose, and bowing, with a
face all smiles and eyes dancing in light, to Mr.
Hendrickson and Mrs. Florence, she stepped forward,
and placing her hand on the arm of her husband, went
like a sunbeam from the room.

CHAPTER XV.

“MADAM!”

They had reached their own apartments, and Mrs. Dexter
was moving forward past her husband. The stern
imperative utterance caused her to pause and turn
round.

“We leave for home in the morning!” said
Mr. Dexter.

“We?” His wife looked at him fixedly
as she made the simple interrogation.

“Yes, we!” was answered, and in
the voice of one who had made up his mind, and did
not mean to be thwarted in his purpose.

“Mr. Dexter!” his wife stood very erect
before him; her eyes did not quail beneath his angry
glances; nor was there any sign of weakness in her
low, even tones. “Let me warn you now—­and
regard the warning as for all time—­against
any attempt to coerce me into obedience to your arbitrary
exactions. Your conduct to-night was simply disgraceful—­humiliating
to yourself, and mortifying and unjust to your wife.
Let us have no more of this. There is a high wall
between us, Mr. Dexter—­high as heaven and
deep as—.” Her feelings were getting